Meg's EduPedia - Recently Updated Pages

2. Wikis in education

MeganPoore — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:07:14 CST

Meg’s EduPedia objectives

To identify the main pedagogical and practical reasons for the current success of wikis in educaton.
To analyse how teachers are currently using wikis with and for their students.
To evaluate others’ use of wikis in the classroom.

Your EduPedia objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or discuss it on this module's discussion forum.

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Introduction

Wikis are really starting to take off in the educational arena, and not just amongst ‘tech-savvy’ teachers. Why? What potential do they have for use in education? This module outlines some of the pedagogical and practical arguments for using wikis in the classroom, as well as providing some links to real-life classroom wikis. In this module you will learn about:

The education benefits of using wikis
How others are using wikis in their classes

Focus questions: Educational benefits of wikis

Given that you now know something about the 'wiki interface’ from the What is a wiki module, what do youanticipate the educational benefits of wikis to be in terms of 1) pedagogy, and 2) classroom management? What do wikis force the student to do in terms of writing? Thinking? Communicating? What is it about wikis that might appeal to students? Can using a wiki interface make your life easier in the classroom? How would you use wikis to communicate with parents and students? How would you use a wiki to run a class or course? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or discuss on this module's discussion forum.

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Benefits of wikis

With the right educational design, and with good teaching, wikiing has many benefits in the educational setting:

Intellectual and writing

Encourages writing
Encourages reading
Encourages integration of diverse perspectives
Teaches appropriate expression of scholarly opinion
Improves writing skills
Promotes interpretation, validation, assessment, analysis, critique, synthesis, evaluation.

Communication, collaboration, participation, socialisation

Encourages collaboration and teamwork
Facilitates communication
Engagement in the community
Audience — you can have readers in the wider world
Appropriate online behaviour
Easy sharing of info

Motivation and organisation

Control and ownership on the part of the wiki writers
Students try harder when they know their work is being published to the world
Easy self-publication

Classroom Management

Ease of feedback from both teacher, other students, and the world in general
Allows for searching if pages are tagged
You (and the students) can track learning progress through time through the page history function
Easy communication with students and parents

Classroom benefits (Oradini and Saunders 2007, in the context of e-portfolios, but also applicable to wikis)

Easier for students to submit their work
Easier for the tutor to view work quickly
Helps in the monitoring of student progress
Provides templates to enable scaffolding of student progress
Facilitates provision of both formative and summative feedback
Allows students to be more creative
Saves time when collecting work
Accessible anywhere

Admin benefits

Easy to use
Good learning management system
Central location for document building and drafting
Document/content management
Version control
You will get notifications of changes made
Easy set-up and management

Exercise: Search for wikis

Search for some (Aussie) wikis on the web to get a sense of how teachers of your year level are using wikis in their classrooms. Try to identify the purpose of the wiki: Is it for communicating with students or parents? Is it posting assignment or class info? Do students have their own wikis for the class? Discuss what you find by providing links and observations in this module's discussion forum.

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Exercise: Evaluate wikis

Next, evaluate the effectiveness of the wiki enterprises you come across: Are the students engaged? Are they responding to others’ work on the web and elsewhere? Are they creating their own material? Are pages focused and on-topic? Are the pages interesting? What is the quality of the writing like? What about the thinking? Is the wiki easy to navigate? Discuss your evaluations in this module's discussion forum. Have you found any dodgy examples of classroom wikis? What makes them dodgy?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Summing up …

Wikis are

Community-oriented but learner-centred
Customisable
Constructivist
Connectivist
Authentic

Reflection

Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or discuss it on this module's discussion forum.

What have I learnt?
What is still unclear?
What do I need to follow up on?
Where to from here?
What other stuff I have read or accessed to help me make sense of it all?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Links and resources

Wikis in the classroom (DET, WA)

Blogs and wikis, Bemidji State University

Victorian Education Teacher Channel -- wikis

For teachers new to wikis

Teaching with Technology wiki

Wet Paint's education page

Using ICTs to support higher order thinking (DECS SA, pdf)

By and for teachers

Wikiversity

Teaching with Thinking and Technology

Classroom management

West Fairmont Middle School puts lab sign-ups on their wiki

Welker's Wikinomics

Salute to Seuss

Mr Kimzey does just about everything on his class's wiki!

English News Reporting and Writing

By teachers for students

English News Reporting and Writing

Math 12v Outcomes Portfolio

Biology Knowledgy has a great sense of humour!

SAS Humanities wiki

GoAPES

By students

SHS Architectural CADD (individual students each have a space on the wiki)

Kimzey wiki

Teaching with Technology wiki

International Human Ecology wiki

SAS Humanities wiki

Misc

Script writing with a wiki

3. Wikis ideas for practice

MeganPoore — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:32:53 CDT

Meg’s EduPedia objectives

To collect and compare ideas for how you could use wikis in your class.
To generate ideas for how you could use wikis in your classroom.
To assess a range of wikis for usefulness, effectiveness, communication style and ease of use.
To select a wiki or wikis to refer to as a model for your own wiki enterprise.

Your EduPedia objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Introduction

Teachers use wikis in three main ways: as a professional tool for sharing with other teachers, as a class management and communication system, and as an educational tool. This module describes some of the most common things teachers are doing with wikis, but asks you, too, to come up with some ideas of your own for using wikis in the classroom.

Focus questions: Wikis in practice

Now that you’ve looked at some wikis in the Wikis in education module, start thinking about how teachers have been using wikis in terms of professional communication, class management and education: What sorts of announcements, topics, or information are created and in what context (communication, assessment, class assignments … )? What do you need to know more about? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

What could you wiki?

Here are some ideas for wikis.

Professional wikis: teachers wikiing for teachers. See Wikiversity for an extreme example (it's HUGE!) of teachers creating wikis for others to dip into. Other examples include the South Australian Senior Secondary Information Technology Teachers' wiki, a resource-building wiki, and Second Life in Education, a wiki about how to use virtual worlds in teaching. Other things you could do on your wiki are:

Provide tips for other teachers
Reflect on practice
Share ideas
Post resources
Explore important issues in the profession (Richardson 2006: 40-2).

Possible pages could include

Professional issues
Discoveries
Resource sharing
Pedagogy
Curriculum
Dealing with behavioural problems
Tips and tools
Networking
Educational policy
School issues
Community announcements via the discussion tool

Wikiversity

Class management wikis: teachers wikiing for students (Richardson 2006: 40-4; UHCL n.d.: online). Many teachers use wikis to organise and run their classes. EduPedia is an example of using a wiki as a ‘learning management system’ where you can:

Communicate the latest class info
Post course guides
Provide links
Provide advice on how to complete assignments
Provide assignment info
Communicate with parents
Conduct assignment review
Post prompts for reflection on class topics

Other examples:

SHS Architectural CADD (individual students each have a space on the wiki)

West Fairmont Middle School puts lab sign-ups on their wiki

Welker's Wikinomics

Salute to Seuss

Mr Kimzey does just about everything on his class's wiki!

English News Reporting and Writing

Educational wikis: wikiing by students (Richardson 2006: 40-4; UHCL n.d.: online). There are many things you could ask students to do on their wiki pages:

Group projects
Build resource or research collections
Write pages on news items or current affairs
Discuss the ‘learning journey’ or workshop activities in the discussion forum on the page
Share info, resources, links
Peer review
Group FAQ

Script writing with a wiki

Biology Knowledgy has a great sense of humour!

Kimzey wiki

Math 12v Outcomes Portfolio

Teaching with Technology wiki

Exercise: Brainstorm classroom uses

Brainstorm other uses can you think of for wikis in the classroom. Separate things out according to your wiki purpose: for other teachers, for students, by students. Once you’ve got a topic area, start thinking about the content: what would you include in terms of course content, issues, specifics, links? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Exercise: Wiki types comparison

Find examples of each type of wiki: a teacher-for-teachers wiki, a student/parent communication wiki, a student wiki for a particular class or course. Analyse and then compare them for effectiveness, communication style, usefulness for the intended audience, ease of finding the right info. Select a wiki that you would refer to as a model for your own classroom wiki and explain why you would use it. Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Exercise: Wikiing plan

Begin to formulate your wikiing plan. Will you be wikiing for students, or will you ask students to creat a wiki or wikis themselves? What is the purpose of the wiki? Is it for other teachers? For communication with students or parents? For student learning? Below are some places to start. Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it! You can also use Meg's Wiki Plan (pdf, 296 KB) to help guide you.

For other teachers

What is your focus? What will make people visit your wiki? Theory? Philosophy? Sociology? Student behaviour? Edtech? Policy? Current issues?
How passionate are you about the topic? Can you maintain an interest?
Can you share other resources with teachers? Links? Media?

For class management

What sorts of pages will you create?
Will students or parents be responsible for keeping up-to-date with the latest announcements?
Will you be uploading assignments for students to access at home?
What if a student doesn’t have access at home? Will you expect them to access your wiki at school or via a public library?

For student learning

Subject prompts
Group or individual wikis?
Assessment
Teaching privacy, copyright, security
Will you set up a wiki for each student or group, or will you ask them to do it themselves? Will you allow them to find their own wiki site, provided it meets certain requirements that you set out yourself?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Reflection

Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

What have I learnt?
What is still unclear?
What do I need to follow up on?
Where to from here?
What other stuff I have read or accessed to help me make sense of it all?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Have you finished?

If you’re only using a wiki as a professional or class management tool, then you might want to skip the next two modules and go straight to the Privacy, security and copyright module. If you’re using wikis for explicit educational purposes, then you’ll need to have a look at the next module, Wiki consideratons, and the module on how to assess student wikis.

Meg's EduPedia Home

MeganPoore — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:38:00 CDT

Welcome to Meg's EduPedia

This is my site for educators about how to to use wikis on education. The various modules cover topics such as

Wiki basics
Finding a suitable wiki host
The benefits of using wikis in education
Educational design
Assessment rubrics for student wikis
And heaps more!

The site is meant to be used in conjunction with the workshops that I run for educators on wikiing, but if you find the modules useful outside of that setting, then good for you! What's more, you can do the course at your own pace and in whatever order you want.

Set up your own wiki

For all users, however, I recommend that you set up your own wiki at the beginning of the course and you start wikiing your answers, thoughts and reflections to the questions raised in the course. With a wiki, you can record your own learning journey and keep a track of any useful material that you find yourself on the Web. For example, each module asks you to clarify what your own learning objectives are and then to reflect at the end on what you've learnt (or not!). If you set up a wiki for each of the modules and answer these questions, you will:

Learn more about how wikiswork in the technical sense
Begin to think more deeply about what it is that you're trying to achieve with wikis in the classroom

Alternatively, each module has a discussion post set up for it, so you can leave your comments and discoveries there.

EduPedia aims to take the ‘freak out' factor out of using up a wiki or wikis for your classroom and, to that end, the site is aimed at novices.

I hope you enjoy the site. Let me know if you find any really terrific resources that you think should be added, or just let me know what you think of the modules. Each module has a discussion post set up for it, so you can leave your comments and discoveries there.

Have fun!

meg.

Dr Megan Poore
Educational Consultant
MeganPoore.com

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.5 Australia Licence
Module icons by Judge

4. Wiki considerations

MeganPoore — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:58:48 CDT

Meg’s EduPedia objectives

To measure the importance of good educational design before you set up classwikis.
To begin to formulate an educational design framework for using wikis in your class.

Your EduPedia objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Introduction

Wow! Wikis sound fantastic! I want to start using them right now in class! Well, before you do, you need to think a few things through. This module is aimed at using wikis in a course context and starts you off with some of the educational design ground work you will need to undertake before you start using wikis in class. If you’re using wikis purely for professional or class management purposes, you might want to skip ahead to the Privacy, security and copyright module.

Focus questions: Educational design

What educational design process do you normally go through when starting up a new course or class topic? Can this be effectively transferred or modified to the wiki context? How important to you is the instructional design process? What are your strengths when it comes to designing education for your students? Where do you typically fall down? What do you need to know more about? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Wiki considerations

Like anything to do with the use of technology for education, it’s the hard, curriculum, educational or instructional design work that underpins how successful your class blogging experiences will be. Have you thought about

Wiki brainstorming and problems, an excellent thesis by Jonathan Davies

5. Assessing student wikis

MeganPoore — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:35:06 CDT

Meg’s EduPedia objectives

To formulate assessment rubrics for your classroom wiki assignments.
To write a plan for using wikis in the classroom.

Your objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or blog it!

Discuss in on the discussion thread for this topic

Introduction

It’s one thing to set up wikis in the classroom and even to put up a sound educational design behind them; it’s quite another to figure out how you’re going to assess your students’ wiki efforts. What makes for a good wiki page, for example? Do you need a marking rubric or will you allow students to self-assess? How will you measure student learning via wikis? This module will help you think about how you might use wikis for assessment.

Focus questions: Assessment basics

How do you currently assess students’ work? Will that change in the wiki environment or is what you’re looking for still the same? Will you have to assess new things, such as website design or quality of hyperlinks? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss in on the discussion thread for this topic

Wiki use

Thieme Hennis and Jolien Ubacht provide some process tips for using wikis:

Choose a wiki for specific reasons within the course
Set clear goals, especially in the beginning
Provide students with reasons for using a Wiki; make them aware of the added value
Formulate the role of information manager: one student or students taking turns, who is responsible for keeping structure on the wiki and translating users' wishes into structure;
Start with simple assignment for students to get used to working with the wiki
For coaches: be active in using the wiki yourself.
Make use of a student assistants or class representatives to play a part in the management and setting up of the wiki.

And Susan Hyde lays out some general DOs and DON’Ts. Do, she says

Keep curriculum objectives and specific standards of learning in mind
Focus on skills that students have learned in past lessons as well as new areas of instruction
Provide students with a copy of the rubric before a writing assignment is begun
Encourage students to use the rubric during peer editing
Include space for suggestions and words of encouragement
Provide examples of writing that meet the standards of the rubric, and discuss these examples in class
Use the rubric to keep your scoring and comments consistent to a standard

Susan also says that you shouldn’t:

Include items on the rubric that have not yet been explained in class
Expect a finished and polished project on early drafts
Compare one student’s work with another’s
Be afraid to have students help you design a rubric based on provided learning objectives
Include subjective or irrelevant items on the rubric. Make the assessment specific to the learning goal

Assessment rubrics

You can develop your own assessment rubric for each course or class you teach. Possible assessment areas:

Content

Ideas
Comprehension
Intellectual engagement with course
Analysis
Creativity
Data gathering
Information sharing
Focus
Development of content

Pages

Writing quality
Relevance of links or embedded media
Frequency and quality of page edits
Community
Discussion topics

Design and admin

Organisation
Appearance
Use of enhancements (if using widgets, etc.)
Management and administration

Exercise: Your assessment rubric

Write up a class wikiing plan, taking into account the ‘dos and don’ts’ of class wikis. Write up an assessment rubric. What will you be measuring? Writing? Demonstrated collaboration? Technological competence? Appearance of the wiki? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

Discuss in on the discussion thread for this topic

Reflection

Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki it!

What have I learnt?
What is still unclear?
What do I need to follow up on?
Where to from here?
What other stuff I have read or accessed to help me make sense of it all?

Discuss in on the discussion thread for this topic

Links and resources

Assessment rubrics
Trenchwarfare

ITGS

Wiki grading rubric, Victoria Davis

Assessing wikis, University of Minnesota

Rubistar, rubrics online

Assessment discussion
Grading with Assessment Rubrics Guide to Evaluating Writing and Alternative Learning Projects, Susan Hyde

Making assessment personally relevant, Konrad Glogowoski

Assessing student technology assignments, UKGo TeachTech

Assessment tools, CLPD, Adelaide University

Demonstrating and assessing student learning with e-portfolios, EDUCAUSE

6. Privacy, security, copyright

MeganPoore — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:07:32 CDT

Meg’s EduPedia objectives

To assess the level of risk — real and perceived — involved in being online.
To formulate a set of principles for good online citizenship.

Your EduPedia objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write it down or discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or discuss it on this wiki's discussion forum.

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Introduction

Asking students to do anything in the public arena will expose them to certain risks. You need to know what those risks are and how to manage them. You also need to know get educated about the facts about copyright, Creative Commons, and wiki security. The truth is that all these risks can be managed, but how you do that will be up to you. This module gives you a starting point for your own explorations of privacy, security and copyright issues.

Focus questions: Risks of being online

What do you know about the risks associated with being online? What fears do you have? How are the issues of privacy, security and copyright related? Have you heard of ‘Creative Commons’? How safe to do you think your students’ current online behaviour is? How safe do you think your own current online behaviour is? (You might be suprised … how hard do you think it is for a dodgy type to find out your mother’s maiden name?) Is what you know based on evidence, research and reasoning, or just gut feeling? Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or discuss it on this wiki's discussion forum.

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Managing student wikis

Pedagogical as well as security considerations should be informing your decisions about which option you decide to run with:

You can lock everything down so that a students' wikis are visible only to yourself and the rest of the class. You might use this option if you have genuine concerns about privacy for your class, or if you want only class members to be able to comment on the class’s wiki/s.
You can open things up so that the world can see your students’ work and comment on it. This option makes the best use of the power of wikis in that it allows anyone to comment on students’ work, thus exposing their work to more opinions to help them form their own. You can set the options so that only registered users can comment.

If you go for option 2, make sure your students protect their real names, passwords, and usernames: they must not share their personal information with anyone. Mr Voight has made sure this happens for his class’s blog.

Technologies involved in Internet Risks

Exercise: Managing risk

Think of a project or assignment that you would use a wiki for in class. Consider how you will manage the risks associated with putting the assignment into the wiki environment. Will you shut everything down? Will you educate students in good online behaviour and monitor things closely? Are you prepared to oversee student blogs and to moderate where necessary? How quickly can you, as an administrator of a wiki, remove offensive or potentially compromising content?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Institutional considerations

Your school, university, institution or organisation will have its own policies and guidelines around safe internet use and the organisation’s image and you need to make sure you comply with them. It might also be a good idea to make sure that your leadership is educated about what Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis and podcasts actually are and how they work so that they can make informed decisions about safe and appropriate use of the internet.

The International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning at TAFE NSW has developed some guidelines for using wikis and blogs (pdf). Whilst I don't agree there should be a default position for the type of community a teacher establishes for those under 18 (TAFE NSW recommends 'semi-closed' communities in these instances), the document nonetheless provides a goodstart for institutions trying to develop good practice for wikis and blogs.

Exercise: Your organisation's rules

What policies or guidelines set out by your organisation will you have to take into account when using wikis in class? Are there rules about how your organisation is presented to the world? Will you have to disguise your organisational affiliation?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Good online citizenship

Whichever way you cut it, you must teach your students good online citizenship, even if you decide to not use blogs extensively in your teaching. You will have to cover the following topics, at least:

Intellectual property: facts and ideas, public domain, copyright, Creative Commons, fair use, use of images and other media, plagiarism
Defamation: freedom of expression, libel, opinion, racism, sexism, hearsay
Courtesy: offensiveness, appropriate online behaviour
Privacy: protecting your own, not infringing upon other’s

Mr Kimzey lets students decide how their personal information may be used by others and teaches good online citizenship throughout his wiki. Bear in mind that if users post inappropriate or offensive content, the wiki host may block the whole school or institution from using their wiki services.

Welker’s Wikinomics has Rules of Conduct on the wiki’s homepage.

Exercise: Citizenship for your class

Formulate a set of principles that you would use to teach students about good online citizenship. What would your principles cover in terms of IP? Defamation? Courtesy? Privacy?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Protecting student privacy

Especially when dealing with those under 18 years of age, make sure that you instruct students in the following:

Do not use an email address or username that identifies you
Make sure everything is password protected and that the password strength is high
Do not post photos of yourself, your school friends, your family, your home, your family car, your pets, etc.
Keep your account login details safe

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a new way of dealing with copyright. Whereas copyright is ‘all rights

Watch the YouTube video about how Creative Commons works, and why you might want to use it.

Reflection

Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or discuss it on this wiki's discussion forum.

What have I learnt?
What is still unclear?
What do I need to follow up on?
Where to from here?
What other stuff I have read or accessed to help me make sense of it all?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic

Links and resources

Technologies involved in Internet Risks

Legal guide for bloggers, Electronic Frontier Foundation (USA)

Guidelines for using wikis and blogs, International Centre for VET Teaching and Learning at TAFE NSW
Clay Burrell lets parents choose the level of privacy and security for their child.
Welker’s Wikinomics has Rules of Conduct on the wiki’s homepage.
Mr Voight has a separate page for his Code of Conduct.

1. What is a wiki?

MeganPoore — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:29:41 CDT

Meg's EduPedia objectives

To identify the structural characteristics of wikis.
To compare the functionality of at least two different types of wiki software.

Your EduPedia objectives

What are you hoping to learn from this module? Your objectives can be the same as mine, but is there anything else you are expecting to learn? Write it down (or, better still, wiki it! Don't worry -- we can set up a wiki for you at the end of the module ...) or discuss with a partner or small group in the class.

Discuss it in the discussion thread for this topic.

Introduction

Wikis are one of the most powerful Web 2.0 applications to have arisen in recent years and they are starting to really make an impact on education because of the collaboration and communication they encourage amongst students. They also enhance the student learning experience by encouraging group, rather than individual, approaches to learning. This module introduces you to wiki basics. In this module you will learn:

Wiki basics.
How to find a suitable wiki host.

Focus questions: What do you know about wikis?

What do you know about wikis? In what context have you heard them discussed? (On the radio? Your kids or workmates have mentioned them? Maybe you know someone who has a wiki or who has added to Wikipedia...) Have you ever read a wikipage? Why do people wiki? What do you need to know more about? Write down your experiences, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki (or blog!) it!

Wikis: the basics

A wiki is simply a website. But it is a website that others can edit. You can either make your site editable by anyone (with a username and password, usually) or only by those people you invite. This is what makes wikis a 'Web 2.0' technology: the ability for writers and readers to participate directly in the conversation. A wiki can

Be professional or personal.
Have single or multiple authors.
Be open to the public or only viewable to those who you invite.

Most wikis are structured like this:

Pages can include any amount of interactive media, including links, photos, video, audio and graphics.
Each page has a discussion or comment area attached, where background conversations about the page can go on.
Pages have a 'history' function, where you can check out what changes have been made and by what user.
Pages are also 'tagged' (meaning that authors give them multiple keywords so that they can be retrieved later on) and archived.

There are many wiki sites that will allow you to set up a wiki for free. Some of the most popular are WetPaint, WikiSpaces, Wikidot, and PB Wiki. All you need to do to get a wiki is to sign up with a wiki site by creating a username and password. You could be wikiing in 30 seconds from now! Wikis are

Collaborative.
Dead easy to set up.
Dead easy to use.
Customisable.

Watch the video below from CommonCraft for Wikis in Plain English.

Finding a suitable wiki host

When introducing students to online spaces, DET Victoria (Word) recommends that you consider the following:

Is the site age appropriate?
Does the site provide a privacy statement?
Does the site provide support - for example does it have a FAQ section and an email address for assistance with problems?
Are the services offered by the site appropriate for readers of your posting to use?
Are there are any costs associated with creating and maintaining your participation on the site?
Is there advice about how you can remove any information posted and how quickly that can occur?

Exercise: Compare wiki sites

Visit at least two different wiki sites (or, better still, register with them (next module) -- it will make the exercise easier). Explore the functionality of each (e.g.,WetPaint, WikiSpaces, Wikidot and PB Wiki), especially noting

What sort of support is provided? FAQs? Forums?
Can you moderate comments?
What are the conditions of use of the wiki?
Can you customise the look of the wiki?
Can you add widgets?
How much space is your wiki allocated?
Are there any ongoing or hidden costs?
What are the privacy options?
Can you delete the wiki?

Write down your discoveries, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or wiki your comparisons. You could also cross-reference the features of each wiki site by visiting the wikimatrix wiki comparison site.

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic.

Reflection

Write down your thoughts, discuss with a partner or small group in the class, or blog it!

What have I learnt?
What is still unclear?
What do I need to follow up on?
Where to from here?
What other stuff I have read or accessed to help me make sense of it all?

Discuss it on the discussion thread for this topic.

Links and resources

WetPaint
WikiSpaces
PB Wiki
Wikidot
Wiki comparison site
SAS Asian History wiki site